Evening Meeting - The Disclosure Pilot Scheme – What it means for experts

From 1 January 2019 the Disclosure Pilot Scheme will apply to most proceedings in the Business and Property Courts across England and Wales. This marks a dramatic change to the approach of the courts to the way in which parties will be ordered to disclose contemporaneous documents to each other, aimed at reducing the scope of searches parties will have to carry out and reducing the costs of an exercise that, in the era of electronic data, has become what often proves to be the single biggest cost of civil litigation.

This talk considers the main changes introduced by the Disclosure Pilot Scheme and how the process of retrieving, searching and reviewing documents is likely to develop. It will focus in particular on what experts need to consider, including the need for early input to ensure any documents the expert needs to see are included in the scope of what the party seeks from the other side. It will also help the audience understand the process and the limitations of what disclosure can achieve.

David Bridge

David “semi-retired” from client work when he became a Professional Support Lawyer at Simmons & Simmons LLP, a role he fulfils on a part time basis, spending the other part of his time sitting as a Recorder in the Crown Court.

He has experience of all forms of dispute resolution, in particular contractual disputes, joint venture disputes, large scale insolvencies, litigation, international arbitration (administered under the rules of the LCIA, ICC, and SCC), expert determination and mediation. His former clients included FTSE 100 companies in the defence, oil and gas, aviation, tobacco and telecoms sectors, as well as financial institutions.

As part of his role at Simmons & Simmons LLP, David works on external consultations and civil justice projects. He helped the Ministry of Justice to draft its Guidance for Companies on the Bribery Act and assisted the drafting committee of the Disclosure Working Group on the Disclosure Pilot Scheme and accompanying court form. With his colleague Kirsty Oliver, he led the “road-testing” of the new disclosure rule and court form in 2017, in which several solicitors’ firms and major companies applied the new regime to existing cases and provided feedback on the proposed new rule.

David is the author of “Companies in Difficulty – A Guide for Directors” and is a contributor to the ICSA Director’s Handbook. He has authored numerous articles over the years, published in The New Law Journal, Solicitors Journal, Practical Law, The Expert and Dispute Resolver, Getting The Deal Through and other journals.